 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-06-05 03:26
The way to close the corners of your embouchure is to engage more of your cheek muscles (buccinators). These are what you use when trying to get a really thick chocolate shake (Wendy's Frosty) through a straw. Just blow out instead of sucking in and there you are.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: Clarinet4hire
Date: 2014-06-05 03:54
May I also recommend-
Use the Rose Study #3.
Work only with the first 3 bars of the music,
With each interval, play the lowest note very loud, and legato slur up to each top note instantly subito piano and hold it for a few beats... and I mean as soft as you can possibly get it. Keep the slur connected though. Work not to drop any sound between the notes.
Do not change your embouchure much at all , aim not to change anything, to make the jump.
Focus to close your embouchure around the mouthpiece.
If you notice air leaking, stop and rest your embouchure.
Work on this very slowly. Not only will this strengthen and fix the issue, but you will be happy with how it will affect your overall tone and intonation.
Remember... work it slowly and accurately. Play into a mirror while you do this to make sure you aren't changing anything in the embouchure through the interval.
Give this a while. It will take time.
Then you can work on the Rose Study #5 after you have worked your stamina up. The Study #5 will build even more endurance and stamina. It is amazing what it will do for your over all sound as well.
Remember, work it slow. Accuracy + Slow and steady wins the battle.
Brian
Post Edited (2014-06-05 04:00)
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Author: Christopher Bush
Date: 2014-06-05 08:07
Hello Phillip,
I want to give you a different option. You may consider your leak a failure of your embouchure and feel that you need to have a stronger, tighter embouchure around your mouthpiece. I want to suggest something in the opposite direction. It may not work for you, but here it is:
Think of your embouchure as a seal around the mouthpiece. The best seals tend to have a bit of flexibility. One great failure of an inflexible seal is the O-ring failure (due to cold hardening the rubber, essentially) that caused the Challenger Shuttle disaster. Your embouchure could be getting entirely too tight, which may not allow your lips to fill in the space around the mouthpiece that you need to stop the leak.
Try softening your lips and your overall embouchure just a bit. Instead of working harder and exhausting these very small muscles, see if you can find a way to allow the lips to create the seal with a little more flexibility while still keeping the air going into the mouthpiece the way you like. You may even find that this approach mellows out your sound a little. You may also find that it allows you a bit more freedom both in tone and in pitch adjustments.
Since I see that you are a fellow New York clarinetist, I'd be happy to go over the details of this with you in person some time this summer, if you'd like. What I've suggested here is a very simple way to describe a complicated process with which you'll need to experiment quite a bit. I used to have a persistent leak when I was younger and this approach did away with it (and a great deal of unnecessary tension) for good.
I hope that helps,
Christopher Bush
Prof. of Clarinet - NYU
Princ. Clarinet - Glens Falls Symphony, Metro Chamber Orchestra
Director - NYU Composers Ensemble
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Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2014-06-05 14:21
softer reed helps. Perhaps the reed you use too hard for you MPC? Vandoren lists recommended reed strength for each MPC, check if one you use ok.
If reed within the range or there are other reasons to stay on it, try to start practice with reed 1/2 step harder for ~20min (long tones/scales/etc) and then switch to you regular reed..
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2014-06-05 14:58
We are all very different in how we use our muscles. For example some people seem to have a permanently, tightly-distended belly, which seems to suggest that they never use their abdominal muscles, even for blowing air.
So adding to the posts above, it is entirely possible that you have, through lack of use, significant under-development of the muscles which close the corners of the lips inwards.
An exercise that has sometimes been suggested is any time, say when you are driving, alternate a broad smile and putting the lips in a round pouting position with the corners of the lips as close to each other as possible. Many times. The tiredness ache soon sets in!
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Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2014-06-05 20:09
Gordon (NZ) wrote:
>
> An exercise that has sometimes been suggested is any time, say
> when you are driving, alternate a broad smile and putting the
> lips in a round pouting position with the corners of the lips
> as close to each other as possible. Many times. The tiredness
> ache soon sets in!
another good one is holding a pen/pencil (teeth on top/no hands) and making lips seal all way around
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Author: Funfly
Date: 2014-06-06 02:59
Gordon
I don't know what its like in NZ but here in the UK driving along doing as you suggest would get you some very funny looks and unrepeatable comments!
![[yeah]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley17.gif)
Martyn Thatcher Mature Student Cheshire U.K.
Clarinet - Yamaha SE Custom
Alto Sax - Yamaha YAS 480
Guitar - Yamaha FG 375-S
Post Edited (2014-06-06 03:00)
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2014-06-07 10:00
"I don't know what its like in NZ but here in the UK driving along doing as you suggest would get you some very funny looks and unrepeatable comments!"
I'd be impervious to that. I'v seen people do sillier things, like smoking!
(I wonder if smokers have trouble sealing on their mouthpiece?)
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Author: Funfly
Date: 2014-06-09 19:25
>I'd be impervious to that. I'v seen people do sillier things, like smoking!>
Here in the UK the biggest problem is the large number of stupid people with mobile phones glued to their ears - even texting - while driving along.
bit off topic, rant over.
Martyn Thatcher Mature Student Cheshire U.K.
Clarinet - Yamaha SE Custom
Alto Sax - Yamaha YAS 480
Guitar - Yamaha FG 375-S
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